


Kickstart My Heart

by heavvymetalqueen



Category: Metal Gear
Genre: Canon-Typical Violence, Conventions, F/F, Girls with Guns, Oral Sex, Road Trips
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-02-08
Updated: 2017-02-10
Packaged: 2018-09-22 22:09:55
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,346
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9627548
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/heavvymetalqueen/pseuds/heavvymetalqueen
Summary: Meryl is just back from Alaska. Mei Ling needs a favor.





	1. Sun's Out, Guns Out

**Author's Note:**

> My fic for Galentine's week!

It was intolerably, blisteringly hot in Arizona, especially after the few months in the ass end of Alaska. Meryl regretted wearing jeans and t-shirt, even though they were the only civilian clothes that still fit her after returning considerably bulked up.

She rolled up the sleeves and tucked them under the straps of her bra. She leaned against the too warm concrete wall of the Phoenix International airport.

She wished she still had the pack of cigarettes she stole from Dave before leaving. She didn’t like smoking all that much, but it was good to fill the time.

It made her think too much about the taste of his mouth anyway. Better this way.

A bright blue Pontiac Sunfire that had seen better days about a decade ago honked at her. She leaned down and saw Mei Ling sitting in the driver’s seat, grinning at her.

She opened the passenger’s side and slipped into the seat. Empty fast food containers crunched under her boots.

“Aren’t you warm?” said Mei Ling, looking behind her to drive out of the stopping lane. She was wearing a white sundress that made her look incredibly _girly_.

“Horribly,” she sighed, turning the AC vent towards herself and letting cold air wash over her overheated skin. “It’s like being on the surface of the sun.”

“Missing Alaska already?”

“Hell no,” she lied, but only a little bit. She didn’t miss it _that_ much, only sometimes when she woke up and there isn’t a hairy dog tucked against her back, when she looked out a window expecting snow, when she fell asleep without a large hand resting on her side.

She didn’t miss David. Really. Honest. Men could all get screwed as far as she was concerned.

And that was probably why she accepted Mei Ling’s offer.

***

She’d actually yelled when the codec call had gone off in her head. It had been long enough she’d completely forgotten she even still had the necessary nanomachines. She’d smiled, though, when the cheerful, slightly accented voice had come through.

_Am I bothering you?_

“Mei Ling. It’s been a while. Not at all.” She’d been lying on her bed and not answering the phone since coming back. She was terminally bored.

_I hear you came back from your...stint in Alaska._

“News travel fast, huh? I hope you don’t have relationship advice for me, because I’ve heard it all already.”

Mei Ling had laughed, and it was such a cute laugh she’d chuckled herself. _Oh no. Not at all. I do have a job for you, however._

She’d sat up. “I don’t think I’m ready to go back to combat.”

Well, _hopefully you won’t have to. All I need is a bodyguard._

“Are you in trouble?”

_No, not yet at least. But I have a few tech conferences to visit, and it’s not wise for a young woman to travel alone with classified material in her trunk._

“I’d say. Why didn’t you ask Da...Snake, though? I think he’d be glad to have something to do.”

_People ask nasty questions when your plus-one is a man twice your age._

She’d laughed, feeling just a little self-conscious at thinking that just a week ago she was riding that man twice her age’s face like a stolen snowmobile. “Fair.”

_So what do you think? A month or so of road trip, boring conferences and fancy buffets, all paid. And you get to spend time with me! Just us girls!_

She’d opened her closet, wondering if any of her civilian clothes would even fit her anymore. “I’m in. Sounds like fun.”

_That’s great! I’ll send you the details and the plane tickets right away. Thank you so much._

Anything sounded better than watching daytime tv and missing an asshole, anyway.

***

“Where did you rent this bucket?” she asked, propping her booted feet on the dashboard.

“This is my own car, actually.”

She dropped her feet immediately, and Mei Ling laughed. “I don’t mind. She is old but she’s a good car.”

Meryl tucked her feet under the seat instead. “Did you drive here?”

“Yep. Can’t get some of my kit on a plane for _international security_ reasons. Nor the little present I brought you. It’s in the glove compartment, by the way.”

Meryl opened the slightly dodgy hatch to find a handgun sitting on a crumpled pile of driving documents. They were alone on the road so she pulled it out, inspecting it quickly. Brand new Glock 26, clean and oiled and loaded. She clicked the safety on and off and on again. “Nice.”

“If everything goes well you won’t need it, but it’s a good thing to have.”

“How dangerous is your kit anyway? What is it, nukes?”

Mei Ling laughed. Her nose crinkled when she laughed. “Oh no. It’s what I could get de-classified of my soliton radar work. Which is not much but it’s still massively above current technology, and we all know men think complex technology is much safer when it’s out of _a little girl’s_ hands.”

Meryl rolled her eyes. “ _Men_. They’re the worst.”

“That’s why I asked you. No overconfident nerd would ever mess with you.”

“Am I that scary?”

Mei Ling’s smile was slow, her eyes glancing off the road to once-over her. “With those biceps showing? You could make most of the nerds I know burst into tears.”

Warmth crawled up the back of her neck, but thankfully she was still overheated enough it _probably_ didn’t show.

Tiny cute genius girls who knew stuff about guns had no business making flirty comments like that.

***

Mei Ling’s car might have been a bucket on wheels but their hotel room was nothing short of _swanky_. Huge beds, balmy air conditioning, a breath-taking view on Phoenix sprawling under them, a bathtub with _lion feet_.

It sure was quite a change from her half abandoned apartment. Or a musty cabin where every surface was covered in dog hair and guns.

“You can shower first,” said Mei Ling, flopping onto one of the beds with a sigh, as if Meryl hadn’t been the one carrying the suitcases and all her mysterious cases. Her sundress fluttered, flashing her bright yellow underwear.

Meryl looked away. “Thank you.”

Showering felt so good, especially in a huge marble and bronze bathroom that had soft fuzzy towels to wrap oneself in. Meryl felt all the grime of plane travel wash down the drain along with the expensive complimentary soap.

There were computers and cables all over the room when she returned to it. Mei Ling was sitting cross-legged on the bed, two laptops open in front of her and several pieces of machinery hooked up to them.

“What...?”

Mei Ling held up her hand, then tapped at her ear. Oh. Codec call.

She sat down on the other bed, towelling her hair absently as she watched Mei Ling type inhumanly fast, and also get increasingly angry, red flushing her cheeks.

“Over and out,” she grunted, tapping her ear way harder than necessary. She then let out a frustrated scream as she flopped back onto the mattress.

“Trouble?”

“Oh, nothing,” she groaned. “Just the CIA being _very concerned_ for my well-being, aka they would prefer a _man_ to present my fucking _life work_.”

Meryl had never heard Mei Ling swear. She had no idea she could swear up until five seconds ago. “Typical.”

“They’re already annoyed I decided to bring my work to tech conventions. Apparently the only accepted course of action when you develop things they like is not ever letting anybody else use it.”

“Well.” She got up to dig into her duffel bag for a clean pair of underwear. She only had one bra and it was all sweaty. She didn’t feel like putting that on, so she kept the towel. “It would make the field uncomfortably even if every warmongering country got a hold of your little radar.”

“I’m not going to sell it to _terrorists_ , Meryl,” huffed Mei Ling with an eye roll. “There are very important humanitarian and even simply industrial applications to my technology and the CIA won’t hear none of that.”

Meryl snorted. “Doesn’t surprise me. They hate that whole humanitarian thing.”

Mei Ling put her face in her hands and groaned. Then she rolled off the bed. “All right. I need to get my head off this crap. Let’s go out.”

Meryl dropped the towel and crouched into her bag. If Mei Ling looked at her, she did not check. Honest.

The shirt she’d worn on the way in was soaked in sweat. She made a face as she sniffed it and reached for the only other option, a faded Foxhound shirt entirely too big for her that screamed “I stole this from Solid Snake” at anybody who dared to listen in mile radius.

“Do you have any extra clothes? That looks warm for August in Arizona.”

“Can’t fit into any of them anymore,” she grunted, zipping her jeans up with some difficulty.

Mei Ling grinned, picking up her backpack. “Oh, that’s perfect! Let’s go get you some nice clothes!”

“I don’t really need....” she’d never been one for girly shopping.

“You kind of do though. You can’t go around for a month with only your ex’s clothes as backup. Especially not come at tomorrow’s shindig with them.”

Meryl stopped in the middle of tucking her gun in the back of her jeans to groan. “Please tell me I don’t need to wear a dress.”

Mei Ling smiled, tapping her lips with her finger. “You could wear a tuxedo! You’d look amazing in one.” She did a cute spin in place that made her dress flutter. “But no, you don’t. It’s not exactly on the high side of formal dress code, but looking a little less like my grizzled bodyguard could help.”

“And look like what?”

“My date, maybe.” She winked. She actually honest to god _winked_. Meryl refused to blush.

“Fine. Let’s play dress up.”

It was hard to deny Mei Ling things, she was starting to discover.

***

At least Mei Ling seemed to be as clueless about fashion and shopping as Meryl was. They ended up browsing aisles of faded t-shirts in a Goodwill, because Meryl refused to let Mei Ling buy her clothes and her severance pay wasn’t all that spectacular after a few months.

“Oh! This one!”

Meryl stared at the shirt that was being held in front of her. “That’s a crop top.” It was also bright pink.

“You can pull it off. Your stomach is so flat!”

“I’m not wearing a crop top to a nerd convention.”

“Fine, but what about wearing it to travel? Much breezier than a t-shirt.”

Meryl hesitated. Then picked the coat hanger from Mei Ling’s hands and piled the shirt on top of the small pile growing over her arm.

She ended up with two pairs of cargo shorts and a pair of _ridiculously_ short shorts that Mei Ling would not let her put back, the stupid crop top, five nondescript tank-tops and t-shirts and, incredibly, a dress.

“It looks so good on you,” sighed Mei Ling dreamily. “It’s like it was made for you.”

Admittedly it was hard to find dresses that fit her nicely and didn’t make her look like a man in a dress, and this one somehow managed. Black, knee length, loose enough to wear a thigh holster, and shoulder cut-offs that didn’t pull uncomfortably at her arms. If things went south at one of those fancy parties she was already dreading, she was not going to be hindered by her dress. Nor her shoes, because it looked just fine with combat boots.

To make up for the extended bout of girliness, they picked up greasy pizza on their way back, and ate it on Meryl’s bed in their underwear, watching a bad Hong Kong action movie on tv.

Now this, this was the kind of evening Meryl could get behind.

***

Meryl knew a tech conference was going to be boring, but she had no idea just how much everything people said was going to fly miles above her head. She truly felt like a dumb grunt when surrounded by hordes of people that reminded her of Otacon way too much.

Thankfully Mei Ling spent most talks pointing out who was who, explaining what they were talking about in Layman’s terms, and which of the interchangeable nerds wrote erotic Transformers fanfiction in their spare time.

And when she stepped onto the stage herself, it was hard not to feel proud of her. The audience’s vibe changed sharply as she spoke; men who were rolling their eyes at the literal teenager on stage slowly turned to look at her, leaned on their knees, started taking notes. Mei Ling was confident like only somebody who’d had the fate of the free world in her hands could be, and when she was done, people would not stop asking questions, even after she’d stepped down. Meryl had to cut through a large swath of nerds for them to get through, and was glad to be finally useful.

At least the party had food and free booze. Meryl still felt out of her depth, especially in a dress, but many things were easier with a mouthful of deviled eggs and a glass of cheap champagne in her hand.

And even better with Mei Ling with her arm linked into hers, chatting with nerds in ill-fitting suits and laughing that cute laugh of hers and resting her head against her arm whenever they were left alone for a few minutes of grace.

“You holding up okay?” she asked.

“Regretting wearing heels,” she sighed. “And drinking that last glass of champagne.”

“Wanna bounce?”

“ _Please_.”

Mei Ling slipped off her heeled sandals as soon as they were outside. It was still impossibly hot, the sidewalk warm even through Meryl’s boots, but Mei Ling didn’t seem to mind. She hummed as they made their way back to the hotel, swaying slightly and undoing her hair to let it tumble down her bare shoulders.

“You know, I was scared of coming here,” she said, hands behind her back, not turning around.

“Really?”

“I’ve never really spoken in public before. I’ve never been good at socialising....I _am_ just like all those nerds in there - spent my teenage in my dorm room programming and watching cartoons.”

“You wouldn’t be able to tell.”

Mei Ling glanced over her shoulder. “Shadow Moses was my first job. They gave me half an hour of training and stuck me on the codec to help Snake save the world.”

Meryl stepped ahead, draping her arm around Mei Ling’s shoulders. “You still did a lot better than I did on my first job.”

She laughed, losing balance a little. “We were both tossed in the deep end and told to swim, weren’t we?”

“We really were. And you know what? We made it. We ain’t my uncle or Snake but the world is still standing and we had a part in that. That’s pretty awesome.”

“Hmm.” Mei Ling looped her arm around her waist. “That’s a good way of putting it.”

“Those nerds were clinging to your every word tonight. You are smarter than all of them put together.”

Mei Ling leaned in, and her head kind of rested on her breast instead of her shoulder. “Some of them are very smart! But you’re right. I shouldn’t let myself get intimidated.”

“No, intimidating is _my_ job,” she grinned, flexing her free arm.

Mei Ling laughed all the way through their hotel’s lobby.

Meryl dropped heavily on her bed as soon as they were in their blissful oasis of air conditioning, reaching under her dress to unstrap the holster. Mei Ling wriggled out of her dress, padding around the room in her underwear.

It was nice. It felt a bit like being back in the Foxhound girl barracks.

“I’m gonna take a shower before bed,” she said, hovering over her. “Do you need the bathroom?”

“I’m good, go ahead.”

Mei Ling smiled, and leaned down to press her cool lips on her cheek. “I’m happy you’re here with me, Meryl.”

Meryl swallowed, a ribbon of warmth unfurling in her stomach. “I’m happy to be here, too.”

She fell asleep before Mei Ling came out of the shower, dress bunched around her hips and a dumb smile on her face.

She really was happy to have said yes.


	2. Girls Do It Better

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “It’s okay. I never for a second thought you were straight.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Galentine's day three!

Mei Ling had made CDs for the car. Meryl was impressed.

She was a little less impressed of her choices of video game music, bubblegum pop and, for reasons she could not interpret, Nightwish. But they took turns driving, and whoever drove had radio privileges. And that meant she could play the classic rock station as much as she damn wanted.

It was all worth it to see a tiny nerd girl sing along to Def Leppard with all her heart.

The motel they stopped at on their way to San Diego was definitely less swanky than the fancy hotel, and in a way Meryl was more comfortable with that. There was a deep familiarity to scratchy blankets and yellow tiles and burn marks on the carpet. She had more memories of her dad in these badly lit rooms across the country than in any of the dozens of temporary houses they lived in before everything went to shit.

It was already teeming with nerds coming from all over the country, and all they could get was a double. It was fine. The bed was big enough for both of them. It was kinda like a pyjama party in a way, even though neither of them ever had a real pyjama party before. Regular pyjama parties probably had less cheap beer but what the hell, the grocery store down the road did not ask for ID and they deserved this buzz.

“So anyway,” she slurred, draining her fourth can. “If you catch me dating another fucking super soldier twice my age, _shoot me_.”

Mei Ling giggled, face down into the pillow. “And to think he seemed so smooth.”

“There is nothing smooth about Solid Snake.” She cracked open a new can. “I mean, he can eat pussy like a madman, but...”

“But so can I,” blurted Mei Ling. “I mean. So I heard. Um. Not that I’ve....” she hid her face into the pillow. “Nevermind.”

Meryl laughed. “It’s okay. I never for a second thought you were straight.”

Mei Ling sighed heavily, face still in the pillow. “Thank _god_.”

“I thought you were a shut-in nerd in school, though.”

Mei Ling glanced up, devious smile peeking from the creases of the pillow. “Clearly you’ve never been to an all-girl LAN party.”

“I don’t even know what those words you said mean.”

“Maybe one day I’ll tell you. Things got _wild_.” She rolled onto her back. “Man, I’m hungry. Do you want anything from the vending machine?”

Meryl pressed the cool can to her cheek. “Grab me a Snickers?”

Mei Ling swung her legs off the bed and into her tennis shoes, without lacing them. “Be right back.”

Meryl sat in the quiet room for a while, thinking fuzzily about wild LAN parties (whatever those were) and Mei Ling with her face buried between a woman’s legs.

It was only when she heard the heavy thump she realised Mei Ling had been gone too long. She was sober in a second, hand going for the gun. She slammed the door open without even bothering with pants, concrete gritty under her bare feet.

A man was holding Mei Ling against her car, large hand muffling her mouth. Her feet kicked in the air, one shoe abandoned on the curb.

Another man was on the ground, unconscious and twitching.

Meryl swung, and felt a deep, animalistic pleasure at feeling the man’s temple crunch under the butt of the Glock.

Mei Ling dropped, and in less than a second she had a taser back in her hand. Oh. That explained the unconscious dude.

“So. What the fuck is going on here,” growled Meryl slowly, gun pointed at the man holding his head in pain at her feet.

“Found them breaking into the car,” said Mei Ling, taser crackling in her hand.

“Carjackers or spies?”

“We didn’t -” croaked the man.

“I didn’t ask you.”

“Spies. They were going through my documents in the trunk.”

Meryl kicked the man over with her bare heel. “What, thought a couple of little girls would be an easy prey?”

“You’ll regret this,” hissed the man.

“Fucking try me.”

He dug into his back pocket, and tossed his wallet at her feet. She nodded her head at Mei Ling, and she picked it up. She snorted when she opened it.

Meryl sighed. “Let me guess. Some uppity PMC.”

“Yup.”

The man snarled, blood staining his teeth. “You have no idea who are you dealing with.”

“Small fish mercenaries, that’s what we’re dealing with.” Meryl lowered her gun, and stuck it in the waistband of her underwear. “Did daddy tell you little boys not to mess with Foxhound operatives?”

The grin slowly faded.

“Let’s just agree that you take your crispy friend over here and leave, and maybe you won’t end up with a sack over your head in a basement somewhere, yes?”

He swallowed. Then, finally. “Yes ma’am.”

“Good. Now scram!”

They waited until the man had dragged his unconscious colleague to their car and drove off to finally deflate.

“Let’s get your stuff to the room,” she grunted, opening the trunk that was left ajar. “We’ve probably got the whole motel wondering what are we carrying.”

Mei Ling slipped her shoe back on and picked up two cases from the trunk, quietly.

They locked and chained the door once everything was safely inside.

“Thank you,” said Mei Ling with a deep breath.

“I’m sorry it took me so long to...”

She did not get to finish the sentence, as suddenly her mouth was full of Mei Ling’s mouth, and she was being pushed against the door by a small, trembling, extremely handsy body.

She hesitated exactly one second, and then the adrenaline kicked in and she was gripping Mei Lin’s hips, pulling her close, feeling her breasts against hers, kissing her until she started getting dizzy.

“You were _so hot_ ,” croaked Mei Ling on her lips. “I knew having you along was a good decision.”

Mery pushed off the door and they tumbled onto the bed. Mei Ling’s mouth was hot and wet against her throat, her small hands hungry on her back, under her t-shirt. Meryl’s hand shook, but Mei Ling’s small breasts were so soft, her nipples peaked against her thin camisole, so she buried her face between them.

Meryl let her roll her onto her back, let herself be straddled, and was rewarded by Mei Ling pulling off her shirt in her lap, perfect champagne-glass breasts begging to be covered in kisses. She licked and nipped and sucked and Mei Ling giggled, holding onto her head, warm and increasingly wet where she sat on her lap.

She found herself pushed back and flopped on the mattress, sucking eagerly on Mei Ling’s tongue, sighing when she started running her cool lips down her throat, lap the sweat in the hollow of her throat.

Mei Ling pushed Meryl’s shirt off and gasped, mouth agape. “My god,” she whispered, brushing fingertips around the shape of her breasts. “They’re incredible.”

Meryl laughed.

Mei Ling _squeezed_ , and she gasped.

“You’re like a statue,” whispered Mei Ling, her hands running all over her, dragging down her ribs, gripping her sides. She kissed and licked a slow, torturous trail down her chest, lavishing so much attention on her breasts Meryl thought she was going to explode, her panties soaked. By the time she reached her stomach, sweat was pooling in her navel, and she laughed when Mei Ling stuck her tongue in it. She was about to say something when Mei Ling dipped lower, mouthing the cotton of her underwear.

She just buried her fingers in her hair instead, aching for her mouth to touch her where she throbbed the most. She didn’t. She chose to bite the inside of her thighs, sucking hard enough to leave marks, making Meryl arch and trash.

“Please,” she groaned, pulling at her long hair.

Mei Ling pressed her face into her crotch.

“I can’t believe you’re such a _tease_ ,” groaned Meryl, lifting her ass to push her underwear off. Mei Ling was quick to put her face back where it mattered, and damn, she had not been lying. She was hungry, sloppy, furious. Sucked and licked and _bit_ , thumb pressing inside of her as she milked a surprised, electrifying orgasm out of her in under a minute.

Meryl wobbled to prop herself on her elbows to look over her breasts. Mei Ling was grinning from ear to ear through her pubes. “How..?”

“Told you. LAN parties.” Even the wash of breath over her still throbbing clit made Meryl shiver.

“You’ll really have to tell me what those are,” she grunted, hooking her hands under Mei Ling’s arms and pulling her up. “For now, come here.”

She tasted musky and sweet. She rode her thigh until her underwear was soaked through, and gasped in her mouth when she came.

It all became a blur after that. Meryl ate somebody out for the very first time under Mei Ling’s gentle coaching. She discovered Mei Ling mewled if she sucked on her neck. The bed became a sweaty, damp mess so they moved to the shower, and then the sink, and then the dresser, and then the floor. They took a break to drink, their jaws sore, and still they couldn’t stop looking at each other, touching softly, grinning like idiots. They were still chasing the last of the orgasms as the sun came up, feeling numb and bruised but unable to stop. They finally passed out tangled into each other on the stripped mattress, aching and smiling.

San Diego could wait for them a few hours more.


End file.
